The first is the option to subscribe to this blog via a podcast format. However, this isn’t me doing the podcasting – it’s handled by Odiogo, an app that automatically converts blog posts into audio files. The audio quality is actually pretty good, considering it’s (at heart) a robot.

The subscribe options are iTunes, Juice and Zune, or you can copy the feed into your own audio reader. I just wanted to make sure that the blog is as accessible as possible to everyone, and Odiogo will hopefully offer a useful alternative to any visually impaired readers.

The second addition is my BlogTalkRadio channel. I set this up a while ago but haven’t had time to sit down and do anything with it. Until now, that is.

The first episode launches at the end of this month, on Monday August 31 at 2.00pm EST with Chris Brogan. Chris will be chatting about his upcoming book Trust Agents (co-authored with Julien Smith), as well as what it takes to be a trust agent and an informal chat about new media, business, marketing and much more.

If you click on the banner it takes you to my Blog Talk channel, where you can subscribe or set a reminder for the chat. Future shows will include Gary Vaynerchuk and David Henderson among others.

And that’s that. Feel free to check either (or both) out and hope you enjoy the changes. Cheers!

photo credit: mab @ flickr

A Couple of New Additions originally appeared on Danny Brown - under a Creative Commons license.

At its simplest, Scribnia allows members to find blogs and authors and rate them. So far, so what? After all, BlogCatalog offers the same feature with their star rating system.

This is where Scribnia separates itself from much of the pack, by using “contextual ratings”. Instead of just rating a blog between one and five stars, you have three slide bars to choose from: the contextual ratings system. The context of the blog defines what rating descriptions you can use.

For example, if you were to review my blog on Scribnia, the contextual ratings you’d be offered are Technology, Approach and Radicalness:

• Technology – are my posts on marketing targeting e-marketing or print and billboard campaigns and companies
• Approach – do I tend to offer more low budget or high budget solutions
• Radicalness – are my views mainstream or radical

You then use a slider for each one and offer the higher score to the rating that suits me best for each context. It’s a novel way of letting other readers know at a glance what a blogger or author’s writing style is like. So far, people see me as more e-marketing, lower budget and a bit of a radical – I can live with that!

But as cool as their contextual ratings system is, Scribnia is really about building transparency, trust and community for bloggers and authors, by offering honest reviews. You’ll also find some great new writers and blogs you may have missed – something I’m all for.

Once you register for an account at Scribnia, you can either add your own blog or browse the authors and publications that are already on the site. To make it easier, you can browse by categories or niches. Then you can start reviewing your favourite bloggers and give them a wider audience.

What’s really cool about Scribnia is that you can actually add your favourite bloggers if they’re not already there. Simply fill out the details needed in the Add an Author section, hit submit and that blogger you feel deserves a wider audience is there in front of Scribnia’s members.

Another nice feature once you’re on your Scribnia homepage is the Suggested Users to Follow box.

As the term suggests, this shows you other Scribnia members that have similar tastes to you. Normally these kind of things are just token little add-ons to fill out your admin area.

With Scribnia, however, it does seem to work pretty well.

The system recommeded members to me whose favourite authors were Chris Brogan and Jennifer Schaeffer – two people I read quite a bit.

So far, I have to say that I’m impressed with Scribnia.

It’s bringing new bloggers to a wider audience; its rating system is encouraging you to write to a higher level each time; and it really does foster a sense of blogging community.

What more could you want? How about trying it yourself to see?

For tonight and tomorrow only, the good folks at Scribnia have opened up the Alpha site for readers of this blog. All you need to do is create your account and then when it asks for the Alpha password, type in “dannybrown” without the quotation marks.

You can then use the site’s features or write a review. Feel free to add your review of this blog – or just drop by and say hello. You’ll find me right here.

Note: This review of Scribnia is not an endorsement. I mentioned to David Spinks (the community manager at Scribnia) that I was writing a follow-up post to my initial mini-review and he kindly arranged the alpha pass for my readers.

Better Blogging and Community Spirit with Scribnia originally appeared on Danny Brown - under a Creative Commons license.

This integration and interaction is especially true for bloggers, when you want to connect with other bloggers as well as the community that you’ve built around your own blog.

So, in no particular order, I thought I’d share some tools that might help you (as bloggers) connect more. Feel free to use or abuse.

BackType. It’s no secret that I’ve been a huge fan of BackType since its launch. Allowing you to follow the conversations from anywhere you’ve ever left a comment online, it also allows you to see what the people you’re interested in are saying, and where.

Now, with their new Connect option, they’ve just taken it to a whole new level.

You can see comments from other blog’s about you; how many times your post has been referenced on Twitter, Reddit, Digg, etc; and allows you to see the other conversations that your blog commentators are having. Here’s an example of it in use on this blog (just scroll up a little and you’ll see the info just above the trackback link).

I can see a lot of potential in this addition to BackType’s services and if it helps promote more blogs and conversations into the bargain, that’s got to be a good thing. (If you’re on BackType, you can connect with me here).

Scribnia. This is a pretty new service and one that has just gone into private alpha, so you need an invitation (you can email them for one). What I really like about Scribnia is the idea behind it.

Basically, Scribnia will be an online resource that rates and reviews bloggers, journalists, reporters and more. Using a metric system based on context ratings and mini-reviews that Scribnia members provide, you can soon see who’s worth reading in your areas of interest.

I’m testing it out at the minute and so far it looks a really useful way to sort out the stuff that you really want to read. Think of it as your personal feed recommendation engine. (If you’re on Scribnia, you can connect with me here – note, you  need to be logged in).

MyBlogLog. If you blog and have a Yahoo account, then MyBlog Log is something you should definitely check out. Almost like one huge online community, MyBlogLog has a ton of features that bring bloggers and readers together.

Every time you visit a MyBlogLog-enabled site, your details are remembered. You can then choose to become a member of that blog’s community (see the sidebar plugin on this blog), connect with the blog author, or see other like-minded readers and connect with them.

You can also display all your online identities, so anyone using MyBlogLog can connect with you there as well. The only real downside is that you need a Yahoo account so it may not be for everyone. (If you’re on MyBlogLog, you can connect with me here).

These are just three tools that offer bloggers a great way to connect. There are a few more, and I’ll be looking at some of these in a future post.

How about you? Do you use any of these services? If so, what do you think about them? Or are there others that you’d recommend?

Connecting the Dots originally appeared on Danny Brown - under a Creative Commons license.

Perfect for both casual and more serious bloggers, Posterous is based on a pretty funky idea – to make blogging as simple as possible for as many people as possible.

You don’t even have to have an account, if you don’t want one – you can email your posts in. Simply send the text, images, media files or whatever you want to post and the Posterous team do the rest.

This could make Posterous ideal for CEO’s and top-tier management that don’t have time for blogging but appreciate the benefits of having one. If they can type an email message they can have their own corporate blog.

So why am I on there when I already have this blog?

Sometimes I have ideas that aren’t quite fully-fledged blog posts but are more than just a Twitter statement. Soundbites, if you like. This is where Posterous is ideal.

Basically I’ll be using it to post words and mini-ideas that you might find useful as a starting point for your own. Or not – I never said I was that clever!

Feel free to pop on over and say hello, or start your own Posterous and let me know where you’re at. Leave your URL in the comments – I’ll be sure to drop by.

Soundbites and Snippets originally appeared on Danny Brown - under a Creative Commons license.

Instead, it’s the result of a blogging theme currently doing the rounds. Initiated by Dominick Evans – whose blog is a pretty inspirational and interesting read – it’s meant as a way to share some facts about yourself and then tag other blogs that you read.

While I’m not normally a big fan of lists, I thought this particular one was a great idea. Not only does it let you know a little more about me (which may not be all that interesting – you have been warned!), it also lets me introduce you to some bloggers who you may not be aware of, but are definitely worth reading.

So, without further ado and with thanks to Barb Chamberlain for tagging me in the first place, here we go!

1. I met my wife Jacki online. Not via the usual online dating sites, but via our mutual appreciation for a band. The band in question is Dashboard Confessional, and we were both members of the fans forum on Dashboard’s website. I had written something about Scottish bands, and with Jacki having Scottish roots in her family, she emailed me asking if I could recommend any more. What started out as innocent email conversations turned into Instant Messaging turned into phone calls turned into love. I flew to Canada to be with her and we got married in May of this year. Fairy tales do still happen.
2. I can play any tune you want by rapping a pencil against my teeth. Don’t ask me how I found out this little nugget – it just seemed to happen. As long as I know the song in question, I’ll play it. Just don’t ask for the Jonas Brothers!!
3. James Bond used to deliver milk to my grandma. Before he became the world-famous actor that he is today, Sean Connery was a milkman in Edinburgh and delivered fresh milk daily to customers on his round. My grandmother was one of them. Seemingly he wasn’t quite as dapper at 4.00am as he was in a tuxedo…
4. I was in the top 1% of my year in the UK for English. Back in 1984, when I took my English “O”-level, I scored an A+, which was given to anyone that scored over 95% in their English exam. Not that this did me any good, mind you – I never did get that dream job as a journalist, nor have I written any best-selling novels. Go figure.
5. I can’t click my thumb and forefinger together to make that cool snapping sound. It looks easy enough, and my 6-year old nephew can do it – so why can’t I? Maybe I need to pour vinegar on my digits and slow cook them to toughen them up. Anyone else with any tips?

So there you have it. Five things that you may or may not have known about me (or perhaps weren’t even interested in knowing in the first place). As I said, I never promised them to be interesting – but if you ever need a pencil playing entertainer for your parties, I’m your man!

Now, in true tagging fashion, here are 5 blogs that I feel are worth your time checking out. I hope you agree, and thanks for sticking around to the end of this post.

• Thoughts and Stories. It’d be amiss of me not to mention my wife’s blog. But far from being a biased shout out, her “What Really Grinds my Gears” rants about everyday life always make me laugh.
• Fear and Loathing – The Gonzo Papers. Sometimes irreverent, sometimes provocative, but always entertaining.
• What I See Out My Window. Perhaps not a traditional blog as such, this is a great collection of the views that people have out of their window.
• The Lovable Rogue. A look at social media from a marketer’s viewpoint – and not always with the results you’d expect. And you have to love that title!
• Guhmshoo’s Weblog. Entertaining and humorous look at life through the art of cartoons.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment and subscribe to my RSS feed or via email to ensure you can enjoy the latest post(s).

5 Things You Never Knew About Me originally appeared on Danny Brown - under a Creative Commons license.

Target

Back in January of this year, Hjortur Smarason (owner of Scope Communications) wrote an interesting blog post about Target and their response to feedback left by a blogger named Amy Jussel.

Jussel had written to the retailer to complain about an advertising campaign that showed a woman lying spreadeagled on a target, with the unfortunate placing of the woman meaning that her crotch was immediately over the bulls-eye.

What makes the whole thing interesting was not the fact that Target used the ad in the first place, nor the fact that Jussel complained about it, but the response that she received from Target. Hjortur goes into it in more detail in his blog post, which is gaining a second wind thanks to a new-found popularity on social media site Stumbleupon. But basically, the gist of the post is that Target didn’t deem it necessary to respond to Jussel because she was a blogger.

(It’s particularly amusing that Target seemed to ignore the fact that Jussel is the founder of Shaping Youth, an organization that looks at the media’s effect on impressionable children).

While Hjortur (quite rightly) makes many valid points why Target and its PR team got this so wrong, the whole episode also raises some interesting points regarding the whole blogosphere and its standing with the business world, and certainly within the eyes of the PR industry.

When the PR team of Target responded in the manner they did – “Unfortunately we are unable to respond to your inquiry because Target does not participate with non-traditional media outlets” – they made it quite clear that they didn’t take blogging as a serious media outlet. Big mistake.

With the power that the blogosphere holds today, not recognizing it as a credible media source is just opening you up to a major backlash – just ask Associated Press and the furore they created when they went after the Drudge Retort. Yet, at the same time, is the blogging community to blame as well for the views that Target’s PR team held?

For critics of the blogging community, one of the weapons they’ve always used as an argument is the unprofessional and irrelevant nature of many commenters. Yet is this fair? Yes, there can be some incredibly bizarre and often unfortunate comments left by blog visitors, but is this any different from other forms of media?

Target’s argument at the time was that it preferred to deal with the traditional media outlets. Now, depending on what your view of  a traditional media outlet is, this would mean newspapers, television and radio. But traditional media outlets don’t always get it right either – many letters to national newspapers are just as irrelevant and pointless as some comments to blogs are.

The point is, it’s true that blogs by their very nature offer the personal voice of the person writing them. Yet that doesn’t mean that they should hold less sway with the businesses, media, news sites or similar that seem to hold blogging in disdain. The introduction of tools like BackType should also help to improve the quality of comments left on a post.

I find it hard to believe that Target – or any other business – would refuse to offer a media response to bloggers like Seth Godin, Brian Solis, Chris Brogan or others like them, merely for the simple reason that these guys can still be considered bloggers. Then again, Target never showed any sense in the first place, so perhaps they would ignore them.

Blogging has come a long way from its early days of sharing a few thoughts and stories with anyone interested enough to read. Professional bloggers have audiences of thousands and can wield some powerful influence when it’s needed. Companies like Target would do well to keep this in mind.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment and subscribe to my RSS feed or via email to ensure you can enjoy the latest post(s).

Backseat Drivers and Blog Commenters originally appeared on Danny Brown - under a Creative Commons license.